Royals provide some light relief

For
George Bush it was a week of stumbling from one piece of bad news to another - with the only light relief provided by
Prince Charles and the
Duchess of Cornwall's visit to Washington. After suffering the indignity of criticism from the Italian prime minister,
Silvio Berlusconi, over the Iraq war, Bush tried to bring rightwing Republicans back on side with the nomination of conservative judge
Samuel Alito to the supreme court. But there were further blows with the first court appearance of Dick Cheney's chief aide,
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, charged with lying to a grand jury over the outing of a CIA agent, and then a Washington Post poll showing his popularity at an all-time low.

Last weekend's bomb, which killed more than 60 in New Delhi, cast a shadow over the celebrations of Diwali and the end of Ramadan, while in Paris rioting continued throughout the week, causing widespread damage - not least to the reputations of politicians.

The diplomatic pot was stirred by the Iranian prime minister, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who recalled 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats considered too liberal for the new regime, and by the claims from Human Rights Watch that the CIA had been holding al-Qaida suspects in former Soviet camps in Poland and Romania.

The head of the Kabbalah Centre in Tel Aviv - who counts Madonna as a fan - was arrested on suspicion of promising to cure a woman in return for a £30,000 donation, and North and South Korea agreed to field a joint team for the first time at the Beijing Olympics.